Medicare Providers
Face Tighter Scrutiny

WASHINGTON -- A congressional probe into tax fraud by physicians, suppliers and other Medicare providers may lead to changes in how the program pays contractors and could expand into a wider inquiry into whether other individuals and institutions doing business with Medicare also abused the tax system.

The Government Accountability Office, Congress's audit agency, found that more than 21,000 providers of Medicare's physician and outpatient services failed to pay more than $1 billion in taxes owed through September 2005. In...